Don't Help Me Love You
by messedupfruitsrotten
Summary: Dino tries to help Hibari with his new infatuation only to run into some major snags along the way. one-sided 1880, one-sided 5927, 8059, D18
1. Shh, don't tell anyone

Dino closed to the school roof and joined Hibari's side at the railing. The boy was looking down at the entrance and fields with a stern, focused expression.

"Watching the Go Home club leave?" Dino asked.

Hibari said nothing, his gaze unwavering.

Curious, Dino followed Hibari's line of sight to have his eyes lead to Yamamoto. The trainer and student sat in silence as Hibari stared at Yamamoto hit, run, and cheer.

"He's good." Dino said with a gentle smile. "He barely needs this practice in order to lead your team to victory."

Again, Hibari didn't respond.

Dino glanced at Hibari's softening features than at the happy Yamamoto down on the baseball field.

"He'll probably be a pro one day." Dino chuckled.

"Do you ever shut up?" Hibari asked.

"Why are you fascinated by him?"

"Who ever said I was?"

Dino hesitated and calmly looked at his apprentice. "Don't tell me you want to _**fight**_ him or something. That poor guy."

"Shut up or I'll bite you to death!" Hibari said as he quickly pointed a tonfa at his master.

The man gulped and put his hands up as though caught by the cops.

"Why so passionate...?" he mumbled.

Hibari then turned away with his cheeks tinted a very light pink. When he glimpsed back over the railing at the field, Yamamoto and his team were gone. He could feel something in him shatter. As though possessed by wrath itself, he suddenly attacked Dino and only stopped when the blond was begging for mercy.

"What the hell was that?!" Dino shouted with bruises and blood spotting his body.

"Because of you, I couldn't see the end of his game. Die." Hibari growled while raising his tonfa.

Dino yelped as Hibari swung the weapon down. Thankfully, the assault was interrupted by Yamamoto stepping out onto the roof.

Then as though possessed by obedience itself, Hibari dashed to Yamamoto and asked why he was there.

"I heard your voice and wanted to see if it was really you up here." Yamamoto said, adjusting the strap of his duffle bag on his shoulder and the position of the cap on his head.

Hibari's face brightened at the taller boy's words. This slight appearance change was visible to Dino, though the oblivious Yamamoto was clueless to the unexpected delight shown by the cruel Disciplinary Committee leader.

"You came to see me?" Hibari asked monotonously. "How stupid."

"I'm sorry." Yamamoto laughed. "I couldn't help it."

"Did you even stop to think that maybe I didn't want to see you?"

"No, I didn't. Sorry. That was very inconsiderate of me." Yamamoto said with kind eyes. "Could you ever forgive me?"

Hibari blinked as his heart skipped a beat. "I'll think about it." He answered.

"Really? Thanks, Hibari-san. You're nicer than I thought!" The younger boy spouted happily. He paused then asked, "Hey, were you watching me play?"

Hibari scoffed. "Why would I do something boring as that?"

"Because it would really encourage me to play better if I knew you were watching me, Hibari-san. I like having friends there to root for me." He gave a sincere smile before waving goodbye. "I've got to go now. Come see me at one of my games, okay? Bye, Dino-san! Bye, Hibari!"

When Yamamoto was out the door and the sounds of footsteps padding down stairs were heard, Hibari lifted a futile hand and waved an unseen goodbye to the other boy.

"Goodbye." He whispered absent mindedly.

Dino smirked. "What was that, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Hibari snapped.

"You seemed kind of awkward talking to him."

"Did I?"

For a long while, the two stayed silent. The sky became an orange canvas with strokes of purple and gray clouds gliding across its surface.

"Is it love?" Dino asked once he summoned the courage.

"What was that?" Hibari questioned back.

"Do you like Yamamoto?"

There was no reply.

"You acted like that." Dino began. "As though you were in love or something."

Hibari pointed his tonfa at Dino once more. "Didn't I say earlier that if you don't shut up, I'll bite you to death?"

Dino ducked away from the weapon and snickered quietly to himself. A moment's pause and the tonfa was put away. Another rest then Hibari started to talk again.

Reluctant, Hibari asked, "Have you ever liked anyone?" His tone was harsher than the question.

"You need to learn to be gentler with a subject like this." Dino joked.

"Have you or have you not? If you haven't then leave."

"I have." Dino said, looking to the thin grey clouds that glazed over the firmament.

"What was it like? Your first love?" Hibari's eyes were half-lidded and serious as though he had been pondering the topic for a long time, though his speech remained uninflected and stiff.

"It was when I was younger than you are now," Dino began, sitting on the ground and leaning against the roof railing. "There was this beautiful girl named Isabella. She had long, golden hair, the biggest, cutest eyes I had ever seen in my life, and an insanely sweet smile. It made my heart jump every time I saw it. I indulged in that love so badly that I saw and talked to her every single day. Naturally, with my good looks, she turned out to return my feelings and we dated for a while, but then we saw one another so much that we grew sick of each other. To this day, I hope I never see that bitch again." Dino closed his eyes and played out scenes of his pleasant youth in his head.

Hibari let out a grunt of acknowledgement, but most likely he wasn't really listening.

"Why Yamamoto?" Dino asked, fidgeting with his fingers as the dusk air started to settle in.

Hibari's pale skin turned a light red. "I don't have to tell you that." He muttered.

Dino laughed. "Fine, I'll tell him how you feel if you don't tell me why."

"Tell him and I bite you to death."

Dino let out a louder laugh before grinning widely. "I'm glad…" He said. "that you feel comfortable telling me, your tutor, this. It's nice getting to know you."

"What in the world are you saying?"

"Just that it's nice that as your personal teacher I get to know you better than anyone else. That you and I can exchange secrets. That there's things the cold, quiet Kyoya will only let me know."

Hibari frowned. "Now I want you to forget."

"Why?" Dino said. "You can't back out of intimate relationships like these! What are you going to do next? Divorce Yamamoto?" Dino was going to snicker at his own joke, but was stopped when a tonfa ruthlessly connected with his jaw.

"Hey! Aren't I injured enough?" He pouted.

"Didn't I say that I'd bite you to death for talking?" Hibari held up his weapon once again.

"Wait! Wait! If you don't hit me, I'll help you!" Dino exclaimed, flailing about with fear.

Hibari pulled his tonfa back to his side. "Help me with what?" He asked, a bit of excitement raising inside him, though he wouldn't let it show.

"I'll help with your Yamamoto problem." Dino promised sloppily.

Hibari paused then somewhat relaxed his guard. "Alright." He said. He crossed his arms. "How will you go about doing that?"

"Well," Dino said after recovering from the fright. "You have to tell me what made you fall for him first."

"…I see." Hibari snarled. "In my opinion, it's fairly romantic. It happened something like this…

***

Yamamoto, Gokudera, and Tsuna sat in a circle with their legs Indian style and food in front of them.

Gokudera lay down in the grass and sighed, "Wow, tenth! You were right, eating out here is great!"

"Yeah, isn't it enjoyable getting some fresh air?" Tsuna said before taking a bite out of some of his meal.

After they had finished and were making their way back to class, the area they had eaten in was sprinkled with wrappers, rice, and other bits of trash. Hibari came upon this which cause fury to rage inside of him.

"You three!" He roared, anger looming mutely in his voice.

The trio froze up before looking behind their backs and at the livid Disciplinary Committee leader.

"What do you think you're doing littering on school grounds?" Hibari hissed, fire sparking and crackling in his eyes.

Gokudera and Tsuna swallowed fearfully and hurriedly cleaned up the mess without looking at the forceful delinquent. Yamamoto completed the task as he hummed and picked up piece of garbage after piece of garbage. As Gokudera and Tsuna made their mad dash away, Yamamoto strode after them.

Hibari huffed proudly.

Out of nowhere, Yamamoto stopped to look at Hibari.

"You know," The baseball fanatic said. "Though you can be an insanely scary person, Hibari-san, you might be too cute for me to be that afraid of you." He then smiled goofily. "I'm glad I'm the only one who's noticed how adorable you are." Then he jogged off to join his friends.

Hibari's eyes widened and his head filled with irritation. He scowled at the figure of Yamamoto trotting into the distance.

***

…For days after that I couldn't take my eyes or mind off him. Eventually, I think I somehow found myself a little infatuated. Though for the first month or two I may have confused the feeling for murderous intent."

Dino raised an eyebrow and mumbled, "Yeah, that's really romantic."

"But," Hibari said. "I hate this so much, I can't stand it. This love has been getting on my nerves. For weeks I've been trying to avoid that kid and get close to him at the same time. I don't get it. Help me now or I'll bite you—"

"—To death. I know, I get it!" Dino said while rolling his eyes. "It sounds like you have a head start to getting him. He thinks you're cute."

Hibari grimaced. "I don't want to get him. I want to get over him. Weren't you listening?" He said coolly.

"Are sure about that? It's a great experience when the one you love loves you back." Dino said, smiling ear to ear.

"I don't go searching pleasure so blatantly like that."

"You don't?"

"I don't have time."

"But aren't you like a lion in the sense that you bite things to death and sleep most the day?"

"Shut up."

"Come on, Yamamoto called you cute, remember?"

Abruptly, Hibari's usual flow of cool was blocked and his whole body flared red as he vividly remembered Yamamoto's deep tone when talking to him. This lasted for only a second or two until he regained his clam. He looked to Dino. "He can seriously like me back?" He asked drearily with half-lidded eyes.

"I swear it." Dino said, crossing his fingers.

* * *

A/N: After this story is completed, I'll merge it with I Consent, Not Age.


	2. Guest appearance

"First, let's work on that attitude of yours, okay?" Dino said, prepared to act as Hibari's trainer in a manner different from usual.

"What attitude?" Hibari growled while whipping out a tonfa. "Are you saying there's a flaw in my personality?"

Dino shivered frightfully as the weapon hovered an inch away from his eye. "Only some minor ones." He stuttered.

"Like?" Asked Hibari.

"Like this whole delinquent thing. It's not terribly cute."

"I'm a man. Since when was I meant to be 'cute' anyways?"

Dino took a moment to think and then pulled out paper and pen. On it he doodled a quick image of Hibari and Yamamoto. He showed it to his student.

"This is you." He said. "and this is Yamamoto. See, Yamamoto is taller and he's into sports. Girls like him a lot too. He's kind of your typical man." He pointed the pen at the drawing of Hibari. "You, however, are a bit tinier and while your personality is dominant, your stature is not. Plus you secretly have a hint of girliness to you in the sense that you are subject to your feelings. You act out on your anger, frustration, irritation, annoyance… most of your feelings are of that kind. You also sleep when you feel even a small trace of fatigue and you are completely controlled by love."

Hibari's eyes narrowed. "What are you getting at? Hurry up and explain yourself if you don't want to die."

'What a perfect example of what I was just saying…' Dino thought before continuing his speech. "In reference to these things, Yamamoto would be the seme or tachi and in this case you would be the uke or neko. Therefore, Yamamoto's attractive point would be his coolness and yours would be your cuteness."

Relentlessly, Hibari smashed his tonfa into Dino's stomach. "None of that made any sense. What the hell are those things?" The Disciplinary Committee leader said.

"You hit me because you don't understand?" Dino screamed.

"I told you to explain and an explanation should make things clearer to me not confuse me."

"Well sorry!" Dino then drew a cat tail, ears, and collar onto the doodle of Hibari and then a leash on the collar with the other end in Yamamoto's hand. "Does that make it clearer?"

Another hit to the stomach.

"I'm no one's pet." Hibari hissed.

Dino clutched onto his tummy while a tear crept out the corner of his eye. "S… Sorry."

After Dino got over his pain he tried to think of other ways to make Hibari understand seme and uke.

"Ah!" The blond man said suddenly as though a light bulb had just popped up above his head. "It's like this," he began. "Semeru means to attack while umeru means to receive right. So if you apply that to bedroom situation, Yamamoto would be the guy attacking, right?"

Hibari's hand flew across Dino's cheek. "He wouldn't dare try to strike me. That guy is well aware of our differences in power."

Dino sighed. "Ow." He rubbed his cheek and shook his head while saying, "That's not quite what I meant."

"What I think this idiot is trying to say," A high-pitched voice called out from behind Dino. "is that if the two of you were to make love, the cool Yamamoto would want to see the adorable Hibari crying out underneath him."

Dino froze and his face flushed.

Reborn then stepped out from behind the embarrassed man and waved to Hibari. "Ciaossu." The Italian infant said wearing his usual mocking smile.

"Oh." Hibari said. "It's the baby. How are you doing today?"

"I was bored until I came upon this discussion. Fallen for the tough Yamamoto, I see?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Why would you get this worthless guy to help you? He loses at least twelve women each month."

"Really? That many?"

"Yes. They always end up telling him that he needs to be more of a man."

Dino had rivers of tears running down his face. "Please don't exaggerate things, Reborn. It's never been even ten girls in one month."

Reborn then twisted Dino's arm backwards. "Are you trying to say I can't count?"

Dino shrieked, "No, I never suggested anything like that…!"

Reborn let go and grinned a bit wider. "You didn't?" He asked. He ruthlessly jump kicked Dino in the gut, making him crash into the roof door. "I'm sure you did." He said during his smooth landing back onto the floor.

"Wao." Hibari said as he clapped lightly.

"I should be helping you from here on out." Reborn told Hibari.

"Okay."

"First things first, we must reduce the amount of clothing you wear when in Yamamoto's presence."

"How will that help?"

Dino crawled over to the two, leaving a trail of blood behind him. "Stop, Reborn." He looked into his former trainer's eyes for a few seconds before Reborn huffed and turned away on his heel.

"I understand." The powerful baby said. "I'll be off then. Ciaossu." Then in a flash, Reborn was gone.

"Hey," Hibari said. He poked Dino with a tonfa. "When you feel up to it. You have to start helping me again, but for now, I'll let you wallow in your pain. Know that I could force you to continue guiding me, but I'm doing you a favor."

Dino twitched from the insane ache spreading through him. "Thanks…" He moaned before laying his head down to rest. For some reason, he almost sort of liked Hibari's sick idea of kindness.


	3. It's only friendly advice

"Like I said earlier, it's your attitude that we need to transform right now." Dino said, holding a pointer stick in his hands while pacing back and forth in front of a whiteboard.

At his desk, Hibari scribbled down notes onto a piece of notebook paper and nodded.

"Wait," Dino said with a slim frown. "How and when did we get this desk and whiteboard on the roof?"

"Doesn't matter. Go on." Hibari said.

"Al-Alright." Dino picked up a marker and began writing on the board. "One: Yamamoto is a nice kid and doesn't seem too fond of violence, so it would be best to try not to hit him or his friends."

"That's too hard. I probably won't try."

"Two: He's very social. He likes to talk and listen. You should try striking up more conversations with him."

"I hate speaking. It can be a serious hassle. I don't think I'll do that."

"Three: He's a happy kid. He has tons of friends, enjoys baseball just about every day, and seems to not have a care in the world. You can sometimes be a bit… uh… what you could call gloomy, I guess. He wouldn't want someone who dulls his day, so smiling more would surely catch his attention."

"Smiling takes a lot of work."

Dino shook with aggravation. He slammed a hand onto Hibari's desktop. "What the hell?!" He roared. "Why am I giving you this advice if you're not going to listen to any of it?"

Hibari blinked. "What are you talking about? I'm listening. Chances are that I won't _**do**_ any of this stuff though."

Dino's teeth gritted and brows furrowed drastically. "You… little brat…"

Hibari then looked to the ground hopelessly. "Even if I did…" He muttered. "doesn't mean that he would like me."

Immediately, the anger drained from Dino's veins and his gaze softened. "Kyoya…" He put a palm to his student's cheek and made the boy look up. "That's exactly what I'm talking about. That dreary disposition of yours isn't the least bit charming. If you'd smile more, anyone would fall for you."

Hibari stared at his trainer then closed his eyes and slowly curved the ends of his lips upwards into a soft smile. He then opened his eyes slightly and asked, "Like this?"

Dino's eyelids fluttered with disbelief and his heart skipped a beat. He could feel his mouth go dry and his breath hitch in his throat. He shook his head and exhaled to bring himself to his senses and nodded. "Y-yeah." He said. "L-like that."

Hibari let the smile drop and pouted faintly. "This better work…"

* * *

Slowly, the sun set, the moon rose and fell, and then the sun returned to power. Yamamoto waved to his father before starting his jog to school.

"For some reason," he said to himself. "I have the feeling that today is gonna be great!"

Though his belief was set back a bit when he was late to school, it was reset when during the first break, he was able to chat with Gokudera and Tsuna.

"You idiot!" Gokudera snarled. "If you had ridden a bike here or something, maybe you wouldn't have been late."

Yamamoto merely chuckled. "It's funny how you criticize me being late once when you barely ever show up to class, don't you think?"

"What did you say, you baseball freak?"

"Nothing. Ha ha!"

Tsuna tried to keep Gokudera calm as the gray-haired boy shouted insults at Yamamoto and during the spat, Hibari entered the classroom. This made everyone in the room freeze with fear except Yamamoto who waved hello.

"Oh, hey!" He said, striding to Hibari. "What are you doing here?"

"What a dumb question." Hibari retorted. "I can be wherever I want, whenever I want."

"That must be nice."

"It is. Now come with me. I want to talk to you."

"And you get just about whatever you want, don't you?" Yamamoto said as he followed Hibari out the class.

"Precisely." The Disciplinary Committee leader said confidently.

Once the scary figure was out the room along with Yamamoto, all students regained mobility.

"This is bad, Gokudera-kun." Tsuna stuttered. "What if Yamamoto's in trouble for being late?"

Gokudera smiled at him and said, "The tenth shouldn't worry about those type of things! It's that idiot's fault anyways!"

"But Yamamoto is our friend." Tsuna whined.

"Hey, hey, if it were me, would you worry?" Gokudera asked anxiously.

"Well, yeah," Tsuna said looking up at the boy with sincere eyes. "I mean, you're my friend too."

Gokudera beamed happily as he wrapped his arms around Tsuna. "That makes me super glad, tenth!" He exclaimed.

Tsuna blushed and tried to pry himself from the hug. "Hey, not here in front of everyone, Gokudera-kun, it's embarrassing!"

* * *

While kids laughed at the situation in the classroom downstairs, Hibari led Yamamoto to the roof and stood there in silence for a few moments, making the younger boy both nervous and bored.

"Uh—" Yamamoto began to say.

"Shut up. I've brought you here to first tell you that I was thinking about trying refrain from doing harm to you and possibly your friends." Hibari stated tensely.

"All of them?"

"Most likely not. Besides, I said I was _thinking_ about it. "

"Coming from you, that's pretty nice."

Hibari nodded. "Exactly, you should be very grateful. Secondly, I want to have a conversation with you."

"Oh?" Yamamoto said, slightly taken aback. He grinned. "About what?"

Hibari simply stood there, looking in Yamamoto's eyes. He didn't know what to say. Dino hadn't told him what to do in this situation. On the rare occasions when he's held an actual conversation with someone, he'd never planned it.

"What…" He mumbled. "do people usually talk about?"

Yamamoto tapped a finger to his chin and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I suppose how their lives are?"

"Sounds like a boring topic."

"For some people it's quite interesting."

"Do you like to talk about that?"

"Sometimes. There are just some people whose lives you really want to know about."

"Yours."

"Huh?"

Hibari looked to the ground and said, "I want to hear about yours."

Yamamoto's eyes widened and then eventually became softer. "Sure." He said.

Ignoring each bell, the two sat on the roof and Yamamoto went over almost every year in his fifteen of living. He told Hibari about all the highlights from his elementary school days and informed him about some of the worst experiences. He left out many secrets, but also told one or two. All the while, Hibari remained silent, only listening intently and biting his lips when Yamamoto told him something bad happened and smirking at the good parts. When the baseball addict was done he sighed and looked to the darkening sky.

"Whoo!" He hollered. "That was kind of fun."

"I liked it." Hibari said. Yamamoto looked at him and Hibari's face flushed. Hibari covered his red face by snuggling his head into his knees which were pushed up against his chest. "Even though your life sounds really boring and a little stupid too."

Yamamoto snickered. "You're too much, Hibari. You make me skip a whole school day only to be rude to me." He patted the older boy's back.

Hibari then looked up at Yamamoto, prepared to smile, but as he gazed at his love, his heart pounded too fast for him to let himself think and his breath lodged in his throat. He tried to move his lips, but was unable.

"Well," Yamamoto said, standing. "It's time for me to head home. My dad'll worry. I'll see you tomorrow, Hibari."

Even in that moment as he saw Yamamoto disappear through the roof door, he wanted to yell out, "You can call me Kyoya." But found himself unable to do that as well.

"So," Dino said as he sat down next to Hibari. "How did things go today?"

"Somehow, this morning," Hibari said. "I had the feeling that today would be good."

* * *

In the dark of night, Yamamoto arrived home with sweat running down his face from the run. "Ah!" he sighed loudly. "Coming home is always refreshing." He began doing stretches and thinking, 'Shoot! I only saw Hayato in the morning! Though spending time with Hibari wasn't bad, today wasn't as great as I thought it'd be!'


	4. My lightbulb

"Saturday means getting in some more practice. Whoo!" Yamamoto said to himself in his room, getting pumped up for the day. While warming up in his pajamas, his phone rang and disturbed his morning ritual.

"Hello?" He asked as he held it up to his ear. The quick shout that emitted through the phone sent a shock through him like lightning. "What was that, Gokudera?" He said, still shaken a bit. "I couldn't understand you. Calm down."

He could hear the other boy gulp nervously. "You see," Gokudera murmured. "This is going to sound weird, but I was wondering if you could come over and help me make a bento."

Yamamoto raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't ask your sister for help with something like that?"

"You're kidding, right?" Gokudera sneered. "There's no way I'd go to her for help with anything! But you know how to cook or something, don't you?"

Yamamoto paused then said, "If you get the materials, I can help you make the boxed lunch."

"Good. Now trust me when I say," Gokudera said. "There was absolutely no one else I could think of going to. That's the _only_ reason why I'm asking for your help!" Then there was a dial tone.

For a second, the sudden hang up startled him, then he looked at the phone in his hands and chuckled joyfully.

* * *

Around the afternoon, Hibari was strolling around the town, looking for a particular café. Once he found the one he was searching for, he peeked in and scanned the faces of the people inside. Dino wasn't hard to find since everyone was staring at the blond in amazement. They whispered words of praise.

"He's dazzling!"

"What a cool-looking foreigner!"

"Just dreamy!"

Hibari shook with anger and then sat across from Dino at the table. Immediately after sitting, he kicked the man in the shin.

"Ow!" The Italian man cried out. "What was that for?"

"For drawing attention to us!" Hibari growled.

The other customers continued with their gossip.

"Now a beautiful local boy is sitting with him!"

"They're both gorgeous!"

"Maybe they're idols?"

Hibari glared at all the people looking at them causing the voyeurs to hurriedly glance away.

"Whoa," Dino said with a weak smile. "Don't give people evil looks just because they're admiring you!"

Hibari scoffed. "But it's annoying."

"Just ignore it. Believe me, I have to deal with it all the time, don't I, Romario?" Dino said to his follower.

Romario, who was sitting next to Dino, nodded. "It's true."

Hibari kicked Romario in the shin making the mafia goon grimace.

"You idiots." Hibari said. "They probably think we're idols since this guy looks like some security guard or manager or something."

"Don't be so mean to him! He didn't do anything wrong." Dino said as he pat his friend's back.

Hibari scoffed again and rolled his eyes.

Dino turned to his student and said, "Anyways, I brought you here to talk about Yama—"

Hibari slammed a fork down onto Dino's hand. "You're going to let that guy know?" He tilted his head towards Romario.

"He can't know?" Dino whimpered as his hand twitched under the teeth of the utensil. "It's not like he will tell anyone."

Hibari shook his head. "No. You don't go telling other people's privacy to someone. Don't you have any sense of moral justice?"

Dino would've said, 'You're one to talk!' but feared another attack from the fork.

"Romario," Dino said firmly. "Cover your ears somehow."

A bit bewildered, Romario raised an eyebrow. Dino picked up a napkin and ripped it in half then shoved each piece into Romario's ears. "There we go!" Dino said as Romario's jaw dropped due to his boss's strange behavior.

Hibari rested his head on his hand and sleepily asked, "What were you saying before?"

"About Yamamoto. I think you should go on a date with him." Dino stated nonchalantly.

Hibari hastily looked away from his home tutor, face daring to turn red. "You think I could actually ask him? Never." He said with his tone unfaltering.

Dino chuckled. "Well, of course I wouldn't expect you to be brave enough to ask him out."

"What? Now you're calling me a coward?" Hibari snarled, hands heading for his tonfa.

Face white, Dino shook his head like a madman. "It's not that, Kyoya! Don't get violent, okay? I would never insult you directly like that."

Hibari pouted slightly and found himself calming down.

Dino sighed and began to explain. "It's not that I'm questioning your courage, but you can't do anything like approach him and say, 'Please go out with me' or something. Simply ask him to walk home with you one day after school, or to hang out over the weekend, or offer him help with some of his classes. It'd be weird to call it date since you're both guys, but it will be a date masked as not one."

Hibari leaned back in his chair and scoffed. "You're really something. If what's coming out your mouth isn't _insulting_, it's confusing. Are you planning on becoming a professional at pissing me off?"

"The silliest things anger you." Dino laughed.

Hibari stood, brows furrowed and a hand on his weapon. "You won't live to say that again."

"I thought you hated drawing attention to yourself." Dino said, pointing behind his infuriated student.

Hibari looked over his shoulder to see several people staring at him.

"The foreign guy seems to have made his partner mad." They blathered on.

"Maybe he told him he stole his girl?"

"Maybe their breaking professional ties as idols?"

"Maybe their breaking up as forbidden lovers?!"

Hibari glowered at all the faces in the shop, including Dino and Romario, before storming out in a petty tantrum.

"Kyoya, wait!" Dino called out after him. He dashed out after Hibari with a goofy smile on his face.

"Boss!" Romario hollered, chasing after Dino.

With the three gone, the café appeared significantly quieter.

One girl, after they had left, cried out, "The blond guy should totally marry me!"


	5. Nature calls out love

"So," Yamamoto began. The sound of the knife slicing through the vegetables reverberated throughout the kitchen. "Who is this lunch meant for anyway?"

Curiously, Gokudera lifted the top to the rice boiler and peeked inside. A smile slipped onto Yamamoto's face as he lightly hit Gokudera's hand, making the shorter boy glare at him.

"Ah! D-Don't touch me! What was that for anyways?" Gokudera roared.

"Just keep it closed and answer my question!" Yamamoto demanded kindly.

Gokudera blushed and glanced away. "That's… N-None of your business."

Yamamoto let out a small chuckle, thinking, 'If only it was for me…'

* * *

Meanwhile, the clouds moved slowly across the vast sky, reflecting gently in waters below.

Hibari laid on the floor of the school roof and watched as they crept over the enormous stretch of blue. The white fluffs oddly formed Yamamoto's blissful face and the song of the birds only came out as the baseball fanatic's calm voice.

"Do you spend all of your time here?" Dino joked as he stepped onto the roof. "You should get out more. Your being here constantly makes you incredibly easy to find."

Hibari sat up and looked at him. "Why is it that you always show up at the exact time when it would best that you didn't?"

Dino scoffed and took a seat next to Hibari. "I dunno." He claimed with a shrug. "Maybe it's because I'm attempting to become a professional at pissing you off?"

"You're well on your way." Hibari murmured.

Dino grinned. "Am I? I should get a badge or a certificate then, don't ya think?"

Hibari rolled his eyes. "If you don't be quiet I'll bite you to death."

"The bite mark could be my badge."

"You're a complete idiot."

"Completely?"

"Yes, that _is_ what I said. Weren't you listening?"

"Why are you taking advice from an idiot, Kyoya? A complete one?"

The usually dark features of Hibari's face lightened up a bit. He put a finger to his chin in thought. "I think you might be training me to do stupid things right now considering all this love nonsense. When it comes to stupidity, who else is there to ask for help?"

The blond exhaled cheerily. "I can think of a few people, but I'm glad you chose me."

"Yeah, you've said that before."

"Because I'm really happy about that."

"There was no one else—"

"It's wonderful you feel that way."

Frustrated with Dino's delight, Hibari slapped the man with a tonfa. "Shut up." He commanded.

Dino's contentment didn't even erase from his expression as blood leaked out his nose.

Hibari's eyes widened at this. He then put a thumb at the ends of each of Dino's lips and turned them down. "Stop smiling like a fool." Hibari mumbled. "That continuous grin reminds me too much of him."

Dino did find it harder to smile now. "Wow." He said. "You're really mad for that guy."

"…I hate it."

"Hey… if you fall in love with someone else, maybe it'll be better."

"No. It's either him or no one."

"Of course you feel like that at the moment!"

"At the moment?"

"Sometimes love ends. Especially with teenagers."

"I don't think this one will though." Hibari said as he laid his head back down onto the roof floor. He yawned and his eyes slowly fluttered closed. "But I still hate it." Silence rested over them for a long time, but eventually it was disrupted by mild snoring. Dino stared softly at Hibari's sleeping form.

"It's amazing." He whispered quietly. "You act so mature and cool, but even you are still just a kid when you look at it. Even you believe in love until the end, huh?" Dino looked to the sky to see nothing but fluffy white shapes of scowls, tonfa, and scraggly hair. "Then I will too." A light laugh followed this.

And for some strange reason, to Hibari, the tweets of the birds that used to disguise themselves as Yamamoto's peaceful voice now were resembling more of Dino's happy-go-lucky words.

* * *

"There!!" Yamamoto shouted as he closed the top down onto the bento. "Finished!"

Gokudera clapped his hands together and looked at the bento with admiration shining in his eyes. "This is awesome! Alright! I've got to go now!" He said, ripping off his apron and the bandana he was using to keep his hair back.

Before the gray-haired boy could escape to the outside world, Yamamoto grabbed Gokudera's arm and unwaveringly looked him in the eyes. "Whoever you give that to, tell them that you put all your heart into that food, got it?"

Gokudera pulled his arm away. "Hey! Just because you lent me a hand doesn't mean you get to boss me around!"

Yamamoto shrugged and watched as Gokudera clumsily twisted the doorknob. When the door was open, Yamamoto couldn't hold himself back from yelling, "Remember, tell Tsuna that you put your heart into making his lunch!" The joy of seeing the flushed red Gokudera trip out the door and hearing the humiliated boy yelp when his face hit the cold earth floor was too much. For Yamamoto, there was not much else he could do rather than burst into laughter because the heavy thought of losing the one he loved to a friend, was close to bringing him to tears.


	6. How are you yeah i'm fine too

'It seems,' Yamamoto thought as he walked at slow pace, letting the cool evening breeze occasionally tickle his face. 'that every time I leave after being alone with him, I feel regret. Disappointment. Shame. I should tell him, shouldn't I?' He stretched and looked to a star whose light was breaking through the darkening sky. He laughed at himself then covered his eyes and shouted, "I'm such a coward!"

"Why do you say that?" Hibari asked.

This sent a shock throughout Yamamoto's body. He looked to the Disciplinary Committee leader. "Oh, hello, Hibari, how are you?"

"Are you ignoring me?"

"Hm?"

"Answer my question."

"Huh? Oh, I'd rather not. You wouldn't understand at all."

"I wasn't requesting that you'd answer it."

Yamamoto sighed and frowned then half-heartedly beamed at Hibari. "I'm sorry an' all, but I'm not up for really doing much of anything right now, not even answering quesitons."

Then the words out Hibari's shocked the both of them.

"What's wrong?" The older boy quickly replied with genuine concern.

The cold breezes suddenly felt a bit warmer. Yamamoto's half-heartedness melted away. He tenderly laid a genial hand on Hibari's arm and whispered, "Thank you for worrying. Bye." Then he strode away into the dusk.

Hibari's fingers unconsciously moved over where Yamamoto had touched him. His face was pink while he stood there in silence, reliving the moment as many times as he wanted.

* * *

The eventful Saturday passed with a peaceful content hanging in the air for most.

"Have you said anything to Yamamoto yet?" Dino asked while his eyes took in every building of Namimori.

Hibari sat on the floor of the school roof next to Dino's upright figure and shook his head. "…No, I have'nt really."

Dino slid down and took a seat next to his student. He poked Hibari's arm and jeered, "What do you mean 'haven't _really_'?"

Something in the boy snapped as it usually does and the break caused him to punch Dino in the face.

"Oops." Hibari said afterwards with empty eyes. "Don't touch me and that won't happen."

Holding his swelling cheek, Dino grumbled, "You're not even going to say sorry?"

"It wasn't my fault."

"You _punched_ me."

"It was an unexpected reflex."

"Don't tell me it's one of those type of things where your uncle touched you when you were five so when someone gets too close to you, you—"

Another hit to the face.

"Reflex." Hibari said directly after.

"But I didn't touch you that time!"

"I also have the reflex to injure someone who spouts pure idiocy."

"Don't make stuff up!"

"Accusing me of being a liar?"

The two stared at each other for a long time until Dino no longer had the conviction to look straight into Hibari's eyes. He could feel his face heating up and heart race. "N-No, it's just… I…"

When the pause ended, Dino had pulled out his cell phone and was dialing in numbers. "I have an idea!" He said abruptly. "You and Yamamoto should go hang out today since neither of you have anything better to do."

"You have his phone number?" Hibari asked.

"Jealous?"

The boy huffed through his nose like a bull.

Dino suppressed the urge to mention how cute he thought that was.

The phone rang once. Dino handed his cell to Hibari. "Here." He said.

Hibari pointed at himself. "Me?"

"No, the air."

"Keep up that up and you'll be dead."

"I think I've heard that one before."

"Then obviously before you must've stopped."

"Hello?" Yamamoto asked, voice coming out through the speaker. "Dino-san?"

"No." Hibari said straight-forwardly. "It's me. Today we're going to hang out. Meet at the park in half an hour. Be there or I'll bite you to death." The words came out fluently and then Hibari pressed end.

Dino's eye twitched with puzzlement as Hibari placed the phone back into his hand.

Hibari exhaled deeply and admitted monotonously, "I was insanely nervous."

"You were?!"

* * *

46 minutes later, at the park, Yamamoto waited patiently for his comrade to arrive. "What a hypocritical guy." Yamamoto said to himself with his hands in his pockets. He searched the faces of people resting on benches and reading under trees. No Hibari. Yamamoto glanced at his watch and played with the thought of leaving and going to find a diamond field to practice in.

Unbeknownst to the baseball fanatic, Hibari was right around the corner of a nearby building with Dino and for 16 minutes they had been arguing.

"I'm not going to tell you every single thing to say." Dino hissed.

With the fury blatant on his face Hibari retorted, "Why the hell not, you uncommitted teacher?"

"It's not that, it's just that this is the part you have to do on your own!"

"But I don't know how. Tell me."

"It's not like there's some secret to it. If he likes you, he likes you. If he doesn't, well… we tried."

"What's that supposed to mean? 'Well we tried'?"

"Just go over there before he thinks you're a no show!"

"Wouldn't it be better if I was a no show instead of going and he hates me?"

Dino pushed Hibari from behind the corner. "Smile and no one could hate you."

"You always say dumb shit like that." Hibari sneered angrily while stomping onto Dino's foot.

"Hey!" Yamamoto called out. He jogged to Hibari's side. "Hibari, there you are… and Dino-san? You're coming too?"

Dino waved and sputtered an excuse for his presence. "No! No, I was just… on a date with a hot chick when I spotted Hibari and introduced her to him, but then he said some nasty comments about her and she ran off crying."

Yamamoto laughed heartily. "I can picture all of that happening."

Hibari slammed his foot down onto Dino's toes once more. "Stop talking, imbecile."

Dino winced. "Ouch. Well, bye, you two. Have fun." He turned to walk off then looked back and said, "But not too much! Save that for the second date or—"

Hibari smashed a tonfa onto the side of Dino's head. "What did I say?"

Being as dimwitted as always, Yamamoto said, "Funny joke, Dino-san."


	7. Don't be discouraged by the truth but

"So what do you want to do first?" Yamamoto asked. "There are some cool movies out that we could see. Oh, and there's a cheap concert going on at that place down the street from the market. We'd have to take a bus to get there though. If you don't feel like doing that, we can always walk around until you find something you want to do."

"What movie would you want to see?" Hibari asked despite the fact the he didn't like movies much.

"Any action or comedy. But you can pick out what we go to see."

"I like horrors most, but I don't feel like seeing a film."

"Well, there's that concert—"

"I don't feel like riding a bus."

"It's too long to walk there, so let's stroll around for something you'll like, okay?"

"That's fine with me."

As they up and down streets, Yamamoto would point out different little things. "My favorite sports store is having a sale. I think I see Ryohei-senpai in there. Should we go say hello? Wait! Look, that girl with the guy in the blue cap, she went to my elementary school, I think I told you about her. I wonder if she's on a date. Hey, I know the guy who owns that shop. If he's there at the moment, we could get something to eat for free. Wanna go in?"

For anyone else, Hibari would have long been told them to close their mouths, but Yamamoto's voice was light and pleasant. He almost didn't want the other boy to stop talking.

"Sure." Hibari said.

"Come on then!" Yamamoto said, grabbing Hibari's hand and running to the shop. Hibari's face grew redder the longer the contact between him and Yamamoto remained.

Once they entered the restaurant, Yamamoto finally noticed Hibari's blushing cheeks. "You okay?" He asked. He put a hand to Hibari's forehead. "You don't have a fever, do you?"

Weakly, Hibari swatted at Yamamoto's hand. "D-Don't touch me."

Yamamoto slowly backed off, very slightly startled. "Ha, you remind me so much of Gok—"

"Little Takeshi-kun! Is that you?" An old, scruffy man hollered from upstairs. He leisurely made his way down each step and once he arrived at the bottom, he was joined by Yamamoto.

"Hi, Oji-san, this is my friend, Hibari Kyoya. We were wondering if you have any new chow we can try." Yamamoto said, patting Hibari's shoulder as he said his name.

The old man leaned forward to gaze into Hibari's eyes. "Hmmm."

Yamamoto blinked. "Something wrong, Oji-san?" He asked.

The old man then resumed his original position and shook his head. "Nothing. I just mistook your friend for a girl is all. I was going to suggest you marry her soon until I realized that she'd become a man."

Hibari shook with rage and the downcast lingering in front of his eyes was enough of a bad sign to let Yamamoto know that this wasn't good.

"He's really old, Hibari." Yamamoto kept repeating into Hibari's ear.

"That decrepit fool. Who's the 'she that became a man'? I'll…" Hibari had his fingers clutching a tonfa when Yamamoto wrapped his arm around the shorter boy and tapped his shoulder. "Now, now, calm down, won't you?" He said happily as they watched the old man speak to the young girl who worked the register. "He's just a bit senile. Obviously, he doesn't even realize how old we are. Besides, at least now you know that if you were a girl, you'd be pretty enough to marry a sushi chef's son."

Relaxed by Yamamoto's touch and words, Hibari scoffed and said, "That's no compliment."

"That's hurtful." Yamamoto kidded.

"Here you two go. Eat up." The old man said as he set down a bag of boxes of food on the counter.

"Thank you very much!" Yamamoto said, picking up the bag and walking out the shop with Hibari.

The old man turned to look at the young girl who was wiping the counter. "Gay marriage isn't legal, right?" He questioned.

The girl giggled and said, "No, sir. It isn't."

The old man huff and said seriously, "Very well. That was a peculiarly pretty boy."

"Afraid he might enchant Little Takeshi?"

"When it comes to the young and naïve being enslaved by beauty, nearly anything can happen."

* * *

"Awesome!" Yamamoto exclaimed as he opened the boxes in the bag to see piles of daifuku inside of them. He picked out the plumpest looking one and bit into it. "Strawberry filling! Alright!" He took another bite then glanced at Hibari. "Aren't you going to have one?"

"Isn't it sweet?" Hibari asked, picking one up and eying uncertainly.

"Yeah, but it's good. Do you not like sweet stuff?" Yamamoto questioned. He stopped as they passed by an electronics store that had several TVs behind a glass window for advertising. On them, a baseball game was playing out. "My dad and I wanted to go see this game in person, but didn't really have the money." Yamamoto mumbled.

"I don't understand." Hibari stated very matter-of-factly.

"Understand what?"

"Why is that man simply walking to the base?"

"The pitcher didn't pitch right four times so the batter is granted the base."

"So they can't get him out?"

"Nope."

"That pitcher should be fired."

Yamamoto laughed. "You'd be a pretty brutal coach, Hibari. Just 'cause a player makes one mistake doesn't mean that they'll always mess up."

Hibari merely stood in thought, trying to come with a fitting reply, but Yamamoto began speaking first.

"Are you going to try one?" He asked, motioning to the daifuku.

Hibari stared at the confectionary in his hands and shrugged. The sweet plopped onto Hibari's tongue and the boy began chewing thoughtfully. After finishing the daifuku, he ate another.

"Like it?" Yamamoto said.

"Kind of." Hibari said with a puzzled face. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. "I want to save some."

"To have later? Me too. I'm also saving some for a friend."

"Yeah, my idiot trainer might like a few."

"I'm sure Dino-san will be very happy that you thought of him."

Hibari cringed at this. It was true and he knew it. Dino probably wouldn't shut up about it, but even though the thought of that annoyed him, it also unconsciously caused him to smile gently.

Yamamoto blushed at Hibari's unusually soft face. "You have a pleasant smile, Hibari." He said.

"Do I?" Hibari replied distantly. His mind seemed to be floating away.

The younger boy's eyes travelled up and down Hibari as though the older boy was a math equation that he was trying to figure out and Yamamoto wasn't very good at math.

"You know," Yamamoto began. "You really remind of a good friend of mine."

"I hate being compared to others." Hibari complained.

"Ah, I'm sorry. Hey, is there anything you want to do now?" Yamamoto questioned as he scanned the streets for something interesting.

Hibari's face flushed as he thought about what he wanted to do, but knew that there was little chance Yamamoto would want to.

Yamamoto smirked and said, "I think I know what you would like to do."

* * *

A/N: ^^^ It's probably not what you're thinking/hoping ^^^ Yo, I haven't proof-read any of the following chapters (except for dialogue). Sorry. Just wanted to warn you in case there are a couple of upcoming syntax and grammar errors.


	8. you can't be if you don't find it out

The two boys stood their ground at the opposite ends of the school roof.

"Whoa," Yamamoto said as he looked over the edge of the roof. "You say you train here every day? Doesn't this seem like a dangerous place to be so active?"

"But that worthless trainer and I think the altitude makes it a bit more fun."

"Haha, I guess I'll try to think of it like that."

Hibari tightened his grip on his tonfa. "Are we done talking?"

"Sure." Yamamoto said happily. "We can get on with the fight."

"You'd better hope it doesn't turn out as a beating."

"Oh, I won't let it."

Hibari darted to Yamamoto who leapt out the way and blocked the quick second strike with his katana. Using a tonfa to push the sword away, Hibari used the other to give Yamamoto a good hit to the head. He pulled the attacking tonfa back to come in for another blow, but Yamamoto grabbed the incoming tonfa. All hands distracted, Yamamoto utilized the few seconds in that state to head-butt Hibari then swiftly jump back in order to have time to plan the next move.

Hibari scoffed as Yamamoto dashed towards him, katana placed defensively in front. Once in range, Yamamoto swung his katana down, the slice interrupted by a tonfa which cracked slightly under the power of the swing. Hibari aimed the other tonfa for Yamamoto's head, but the assault was dodged. Yamamoto let out a battle cry as he slid his katana down the tonfa and used the back end to push away Hibari's arms, leaving the older student's torso defenseless. Yamamoto attempted to get a kick in, but his leg was stopped by a sudden tonfa.

"Wha-?" Yamamoto gasped as Hibari tripped him over, sending Yamamoto crashing to the floor. Immediately after the trip, Hibari threateningly put a tonfa to Yamamoto's face. Yamamoto burst into laughter. "I lost!" He shouted. "Man, that sucks! I won't let anyone know about this."

Feeling a strange warmth twirl in his heart, Hibari snarled, "Of course you lost to me."

Yamamoto grinned goofily. "You couldn't have gone a little easier on me?"

"That was as easy as I could go." Hibari stated.

"I guess it was for a person who likes fighting so much." Yamamoto chuckled.

"Hm." Hibari grunted emotionlessly.

Yamamoto sat up and asked, "Is that the only thing you really enjoy, Hibari? Aren't there any other hobbies you like? Any music you like? Any people?"

Hibari's face flared, but was turned away as to not let Yamamoto see. "You can't so easily ask people things such as who they like. It's only polite to answer those questions yourself first then ask the other person."

"Isn't that only for introducing yourself? I guess it could work in this situation too, huh?"

Hibari said nothing.

Yamamoto put a finger to his chin. "My hobbies are playing baseball, watching baseball, and thinking about baseball. When it comes to music, I like tons. And for people, though I have a lot of friends, there is definitely one person I find to be most special to me!"

Hibari's breath escaped him. "What are they like?" The Disciplinary Committee leader asked.

"Well," Yamamoto started. "They're violent, they don't work well with many people, and they're really smart. Plus, in the end they always find a way to be amazing."

The blue sky was fading into purple and the clouds lingering in it were drawing thin.

"Is that so…?" Hibari droned with his eyes half-lidded and heart racing. Something inside him felt shyly secure.

"Now you answer me." Yamamoto said.

"No." Hibari declared.

"Wha-at?! No fair!" Yamamoto whined with a smile. "Would you tell me if we were better friends?"

"Friends?" Hibari repeated impassively. "Is that who you tell these kinds of things to?" Recollections of the joy on Dino's face when Hibari told who he liked flashed through Hibari's mind.

"Yep. I consider you somewhat of a friend, that's why I told you so much about me the other day. Also, I probably thought you'd hit me otherwise. Haha!" Yamamoto paused then said, "If we were better friends, I could call you Kyoya, right?"

Hiabari's eyes widened as certain phrases echoed in his head.

'_It's nice that as your personal teacher I get to know you better than anyone else. That you and I can exchange secrets. That there's things the cold, quiet Kyoya will only let me know.'_

'_It's not that, Kyoya! Don't get violent, okay?'_

'_Why are you taking advice from an idiot, Kyoya?'_

'_Kyoya…'_

He shook his head and mumbled, "That stupid teacher…"

"Hey, Hibari? You okay?" Yamamoto asked, poking the older boy. "Are you talking about Dino-san _again_?"

"I don't mention him that much." Hibari uttered blankly.

"Yes, you do!" Yamamoto beamed at the older boy ecstatically. "You must think about him a lot."

"Stop smiling like a fool." Hibari muttered. "The continuous grin reminds me of him." His eyes snapped wider and his breath escaped him once more. He gulped, hoping that it would help him sort out his jumbled mind. It didn't.

Yamamoto waved a hand of apology. "Sorry, sorry." He put a finger to the ends of Hibari's lips. "It'd be awesome if _you_'d smile more though. Your smile is insanely cute!"

Hibari pulled Yamamoto's hands away from his face and smiled. "Like this?" He asked, the both of them blushed.

"Yep, that's it. Really adorable." Yamamoto said as they sat on the roof with a benevolent wind passing through every now and then, stirring up Yamamoto and irritating Hibari.

* * *

"What is it, Gokudera?" Yamamoto asked as he set down a bag and glanced at his watch. "The bell will ring soon."

"I gave the tenth the bento you helped me with." Gokudera said as a breeze blew through their loose sleeves and hair. They were standing in the area outside where they had once eaten lunch with Tsuna until they were interrupted by their Disciplinary Committee's leader.

The normal pep in Yamamoto's voice dropped a bit. "So, tell me what happened then."

"It was great. Despite the usual strange things that happen like my sister appearing and interrogating me about why I didn't ask her for help. And Lambo bothering the tenth about playing. And that dumb Haru girl crying and demanding to know silly things like why I made a special love-love-wife lunchbox for the tenth or something moronic like that!" ranted Gokudera while kicking nonchalantly at the ground.

Yamamoto chuckled. "That sounds like fun. I wish I could've been there."

"I'm glad you weren't!" Gokudera roared. "Those nitwits made it unromantic enough already."

The baseball fanatic tried to keep up his smile and his energy as he asked, "So, what did you call me out here for?"

"I wanted to tell you that I'm going to confess to the tenth." Gokudera announced to the taller boy.

Yamamoto had to stop himself from releasing a hopeless sigh. "Were you looking for my approval or what?"

The gray-haired boy's brow furrowed and he exhaled deeply. "I don't even know. I'm so freaked out that I just wanted to let someone know. Have some support. I just don't know how I'm going to do it."

'_I understand,_' Yamamoto wanted to say. '_because I don't how to tell you that I love you either._' He thought. '_How do I tell you?_' The words ran through his mind a dozen times. '_How do I say it? How can I just blurt it out?_'

"Yamamoto," Gokudera whined. "One more time, help me." He looked up at Yamamoto with shimmering, expecting eyes.

Unknowing to himself if he was answering Gokudera or the questions in his head, Yamamoto said, "For some reason, I can't." then strode away without explanation and without a smile.


	9. Things can play out strangely

"Interesting. I've never heard of fighting on the rooftop as a date before." Dino said with a slight laugh.

Hibari kept his mouth shut, looking over the rest of the students as they made their way home.

"If duking it out on the roof is a date, then we've been on several, haven't we?" Dino exclaimed jokingly.

Hibari wanted to say something, but stopped himself.

"Eh? No threats? No snappy comments?" Dino asked. He waved a hand in front of Hibari's face. "Something wrong?"

Hibari smacked the blond man's hand away and raised his leg into the air. He slammed it down onto to Dino's fingers, stomping on the man more unforgiving than ever before.

With dark, gloomy eyes Hibari said, "If you had so desperate a death wish that you found the need to flail your gritty fingers in front of me, you could have just told me earlier and I would have gladly ended your life for you."

As Dino listened to his bones crack, tears ran down his eyes. "Ah, there's the Kyoya I know!"

When Hibari huffed and went back to searching the faces of the Namimori Middle School attendees, Dino joined his side. The Italian man was beaming with glee.

"What's with you?" Hibari said absentmindedly.

"I should be asking you the same thing. You seem out of it." Dino told him joyfully.

Hibari pinched the man's cheeks and smirked. "Stop being so annoyingly happy. It's almost enough to ruin my good mood."

"So your daydreaming means you're in a good mood?"

"Who's daydreaming?"

"You are. Why are you in a 'good mood' anyway?"

The often firm features of the cruel boy turned a bit softer as they rarely do. "He definitely thinks I'm special to him." He said, nearly sounding like he was bragging.

Suddenly, Dino's mind hurt and a lump felt like it was lodged in his throat. "You think…" He began, trying to power through the pain. "He likes you back?"

Hibari smiled and dreamily closed his eyes. "Who knows?"

"How do you know? What'd he say?"

"He said the one special to him is violent, doesn't work well with many people, and they're smart. And what was that other thing he said?"

"Oh no…" Dino whispered to himself as he felt his body grow cold, but a few beads of sweat still streaked his face. In his head, he begged Hibari not to open his eyes. It meant the world to him if Hibari would just keep his eyes closed. "You've got it wrong…" Dino said under his breath.

"I think it was that they always—" Hibari opened his eyes, despite Dino's telepathic plea, and gazed upon the horrid scene before him at the front gate. "—found a… way to be… amazing…"

* * *

Yamamoto was about to leave school ground to head home, but stopped when he saw Gokudera holding a bag and waiting by the school gates.

"Waiting for me?" He laughed. "I thought you and Tsuna would've walked home together."

Gokudera bit his quivering lip and stared at Yamamoto with tearing eyes. "This sucks." He blubbered. "Things always turn out to really suck." He sniffled and rubbed his overly wet eyes with his arm.

Yamamoto's eyelids fell slightly and his eyebrows pushed in with worry. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but the same time, he didn't want to know at all.

"I was going to do it. I swear." Gokudera talked on. "I was going to say it to him, but I just couldn't. He likes that girl too much. I could never. I wouldn't win, dammit! This sucks. He likes her too much and this really, really sucks!"

Yamamoto pointed to the bag in Gokudera's hands. "Is that…?"

Gokudera sniffled a bit more then swallowed. "You left them this morning."

"They're for you."

"I gave him some."

"It's alright. Did you have any?"

"Yeah."

"Did you like them?"

"They were okay."

"Want more?"

"Will you stop it?" Gokudera shouted. He threw the daifuku to the ground. "I don't want to talk about these things! I want the tenth! I want him to like _me_. I want everything to stop sucking so much."

A wind passed by brushing against the waters far off. Yamamoto pulled Gokudera into his arms and let out a chuckle slavered in sorrow. "I wish I could say that I don't know how you feel." He said before pushing the shorter boy away from him and then drawing him back in for a kiss.

Gokudera's eyes widened and his mind was shocked and crying and content and mostly confused, but that all went away when the wind settled and nothing mattered anymore, not even the color of the sky.

* * *

Though Dino prayed with all his heart that Hibari wouldn't look, that Hibari wouldn't see, the boy had opened his eyes. Shivering with misery, Hibari watched as Gokudera and Yamamoto engaged in a long kiss.


	10. and terrify your heart

"This is all your fault!" Hibari roared, stricken with agony. "I said I wanted to give up and you made me try!"

"Kyoya, listen—" Dino shouted.

"No! I never want to listen to you again! All those times when I've told you shut up and you didn't… I should have killed you!"

"Calm down, Kyoya. I—"

"Don't call me that! Don't ever say my name again."

"You're being overdramatic."

"If you don't leave now, it's a promise that I will bite you to death."

"But—"

Still shaking, Hibari stood in a battle position, an aura of doom engulfing his nature. He held his tonfa offensively and his eyes had a passionate, vicious flame burning within. His breathing was irregular. It was close to sounding as though he was going to begin weeping at any moment.

Anguish, stirring inside him, Dino had his eyes fixed on his precious student, the one he now knew he loved. Every second he spent with Hibari justified his love and each second he yearned to tell him, but more than that yearning was the desire to make the boy happy. He wished to give him everything he wanted, though he had already gotten it often enough. With a sad smile, Dino backed away to the door of school roof saying, "Hey… if you fall in love with someone else, maybe it'll be better."

As the door closed, Hibari fell messily to his knees, tonfa splaying out of the floor. He shrieked a cry of pure torment while recalling his answer to Dino's suggestion before.

'_No…_

_It's either him or no one.'_

* * *

For days after that, Dino would come to the roof in hopes of seeing Hibari only to be disappointed. Some days he would sit and wait until the stars came out. Others he would stay there until the sun peeked over the horizon.

"Boss…" Romario said one day while watching Dino attempt to eat a meal including Fegato Alla Veneziana. "Is something the matter?"

Dino did his best to fake a boyish grin. "Why do you ask that, Romario?"

"Because you've been staying out late and…" He pointed at Dino's left hand. "Also, instead of using the knife to cut your food, you've been grinding it into your skin."

Blood leaked out his left hand where Dino had been inattentively cutting himself. He let out a silent scream.

Romario cleared his throat. "I'll go get the first aid kit." He then walked away.

"Ugh," Dino groaned as he sat in the dining room by himself. "I can't believe I'm this distraught over some sadistic kid."

A knock came to the door. Dino staggered to it depression swirling in his surrounding atmosphere. "I'll get it." He grumbled to his subordinates. His jaw dropped when he opened the door to see Yamamoto. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

Yamamoto strode in. "Sorry to intrude!" He hollered then he stabbed a piece of the Fegato Alla Veneziana with a nearby fork and shoved it down his throat. "That's not bad! What is it?"

"Fegato Alla Veneziana or Venetian-style liver."

Yamamoto crouched down and held his stomach, vomit daring to ride up his esophagus. "Whose liver?"

"You idiot."

Once that incident was settled, the food put away and Dino's hand wrapped up, the host and guest sat down for a talk.

"I'll say again," Dino mumbled a bit irritated by even seeing Yamamoto's face. "Why are you here?"

Yamamoto kept up his standard jubilant expression. "I wanted to talk to you about Hibari."

Dino's eyes narrowed. "What about him?"

"Well, he's been kind of weird lately."

"Weird like how?"

"Like twice as hostile towards Hayato and me."

"So you call him Hayato now?"

Yamamoto blushed and scratched the back of his head. "You see, him and I have been getting a lot closer now…"

"Lucky you. Young love must be intoxicating."

"Oh, quit talking like that, Dino-san. You're still young too!"

An edge of Dino's lips twitched upwards as he pondered this statement for an instant. "Yes, but _my_ love is running away from me." He pouted sadly. _'And it's your fault!' _He thought.

"Haha, Hayato and I aren't even really in love yet. Or at least, he doesn't like _me_ yet." Only for a bit, Yamamoto seemed serious. "But I'm patient. At this point, even if Hayato hated me, I would still love him so much that I could never leave him alone. I couldn't give up, you know?"

"More than you think I do."

"Wait! We got off topic! Back to talking about Hibari."

Dino looked away thinking, _'I haven't stopped talking about him.'_

"You're his trainer so I would guess that you would know the reason why he's been acting like this." Yamamoto said.

"No idea." Dino said. While _'Because he was in love with you and then he saw you kissing Hayato and got pissed at all three of us.' _ran through his mind.

Yamamoto's look became sharp. "Hey, Dino-san. Are you saying everything you want to? _You_ don't seem like yourself either."

Dino gulped and sighed. "It's a circumstance you probably wouldn't understand."

"What is it?"

"Nah, telling you wouldn't be good idea."

"Come on, spill it."

"If I say it and Kyoya finds out…"

"Hey, Hibari liked me, right?"

"I could never let you kno—Huh?"

Yamamoto leaned back and crossed his arms. "I got the feeling for a while that something strange was up with him when he was around me. Like how nice he was being, asking me to tell him about myself, asking me out on that date."

"It wasn't a date! It was a non-date masked as a date masked as a non-date."

Yamamoto snickered. "You make the oddest jokes, Dino-san."

"You're cruel."

"Hm?"

"You led him on. You led Kyoya on even though you liked someone else!"

"I didn't mean to. I wasn't purposely trying to make him like me or anything." He deliberated over some issues in his head then exhaled. "Here's how it is. Hayato really liked Tsuna, but I couldn't stop thinking about him. I didn't believe the two of us could be and instead I did my best to make Hayato happy no matter what it was. I even encouraged him to eat a bento with Tsuna and allowed him to confess. I knew Hibari liked me, but when I saw Hayato crying because he realized his eternally one-sided love, I felt like Hayato and I were more connected in that moment than ever. I forgot completely about his happiness and remembered my own without noticing I was forgetting Hibari's happiness too. But…" He paused and gave Dino a hard look. "I've also realized Hibari doesn't like me as much as he thought. His anger at Hayato and I proved this. If he loved me, he would just be glad that I was happy, but I think there's someone else he can't get off his mind."

Dino scoffed. "Now you're making Kyoya sound like some teenage girl who changes her crush every week."

"But, Dino-san, to me, he has clearly liked you from that start."

* * *

A/N: I screwed around with Yamamoto's speech tons of times and I still don't like it, so I understand if you don't either xD


	11. Ruined me

Yamamoto stood with the panting Dino in the center of the room, cheek swollen and aching. "It was most likely best you did that."

Dino's knuckles pulsed red.

"I'm aware that I come off as naïve and stupid a lot, but I'm also aware that I cannot regret doing anything that caused you pain." Yamamoto said. He put a hand to his punched cheek. "This is fine though."

"You asshole!" Dino shouted. "You lead on Kyoya so badly that he thought you two were going to be together then kiss someone else in front of him! You got to do all kinds of things with Kyoya I wish I could do! He knows all about you, he wanted to talk to you, to be near you. Just standing next to you made him glad." Dino punched Yamamoto once more. "And there's been so many times when he's _smiled_ for you. _You_! I've helped him love you and because of it, I haven't seen him for days. He said he hated me. Imagine your Hayato telling you he hated you then disappearing. I should hate you Yamamoto Takeshi. I should." He pat the boy on the shoulder and said, "Thank you."

"Did you let it all out?" Yamamoto asked as Romario put ice packs to his face.

"Most of it, I think. Though I might've left out the parts about how mad I was that Kyoya was constantly talking about you when he was with me."

"Eh? But he was always talking and thinking about you when he was with me."

"If you're lying, I'll hit you again." Dino promised with a laugh.

Yamamoto laughed as well. "Dino-san, that was scary since I couldn't tell if it was a joke or not."

Dino glared back at him. "I assure you that you don't want to find out. So you better have been telling the truth."

A few drops of sweat leaked down Yamamoto's nervous chuckling face.

* * *

The clouds passed by so leisurely that Hibari wasn't sure how to envy them. "Though you're up there tirelessly exerting energy by gliding through a vast ocean of atmosphere and I'm down here peacefully lying in the grass," He mumbled to the floating white puffs. "Somehow I find myself jealous of your lack of emotion."

"So as much as you act incessantly pissed you truly do feel things other than anger." Dino said coolly. He slowly approached Hibari with a cocky smile.

Hibari snarled and snatched up his tonfa. "You!" He bellowed.

Dino stood his ground. "Yamamoto told me to come here. Isn't this the place where you said you fell in love with him?"

Relentlessly, Hibari beat Dino with the tonfa. When he grew tired of holding them, he dropped his weapons and hit with his fists and kicked at Dino the harshest he could. Five minutes into the beating, Hibari stopped to look over his work. Blood seeped from Dino's mouth as well as a few cuts. He was huddled up in a ball on the ground, bruises and scrapes plastering his body. He wasn't whimpering or crying. He simply squatted in place, taking each hit with unrivaled pride. During the break, Dino stood up.

"Kyoya," He said. "I've learned from a kid that as a man, stuff like this must be done for the people you care about."

Hibari slapped him with an unwavering infuriated expression.

Dino snorted up a line of blood then went on, "I apologize for making you feel so bad. At your age, it must be confusing to go through a first love."

Another slap.

"I ruined it for you. Your pace and your heart. I pushed you to do something you weren't ready for. I should've let you make your own decisions rather than call myself a trainer and barge in on your life. But from this experience I feel that I've learned a lot about you. You don't understand the ideas of a neko and tachi, you daydream when you're in a good mood, and you have a beautiful smile. You don't find it strange that you think letting someone wallow in their pain is a favor and you believe in your love until its end. I admire that and I want to do that too."

Another.

"Kyoya, I love you."


	12. Love is Weird, huh?

The punch after the sweet words was both unpredicted and anticipated. Unpredicted because it's atypical to hit someone that tells you they love you, yet anticipated because Hibari is atypical.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Hibari asked calmly.

"How can you try to act so cool after everything that just happened?" Dino grumbled through his pain.

"How can you act so stupid after living for over twenty years?"

"I guess it takes a remarkably long time to acquire all the knowledge of the world."

Hibari scowled as he sat next to Dino. "I hate talking." He said. "But there's not much else to do now."

"That's how it seems."

"I really liked him, you know."

"Can't get _everything_ you want."

The air stayed still and silence fell over the two.

"I…" Hibari said after some time. "Don't think that's true. I will. What I want can change though."

"If there would be anyone in the world to find a way to receive every single thing they desired it would be you, Kyoya." Dino said.

"I will be." Hibari snarled. "In fact, this event has taught me an important lesson."

"And what's that?"

"To never want _people_. They have the ability to not want you back. Anything else is within my grasp as long as I use force."

"That doesn't sound like a very good lesson."

"Shut up."

And Dino did. During the hush, a tear rolled out Hibari's eye. Dino pretended not to notice for the sake of his student's pride.

"You…" Hibari began. "Are like him a little."

"How?"

"He would ask me what I wanted to do and talk when I told him to. You do things like that sometimes."

"I try to, but occasionally the urge to see your charming angry face is too much."

"Those bruises are your certificate."

"Huh?"

"You're officially a professional."

Dino couldn't hold in his laughter. He stopped when he realized the laughing was making his wounds hurt twice as badly. "Man, Kyoya, loving you hurts a lot." He said gleefully.

"Be grateful," Hibari said calmly. "You get to love such an amazing person."

The blond man paused then gave the Disciplinary Committee leader a quick peck on the cheek. "Thank you very much."

Hibari pushed Dino's face into the ground. "My reflexes are acting up again."

When Dino brought his head back up from the Earth's floor, it was covered in dirt. He spat and snorted out chucks of soil.

Hibari stifled a laugh and slapped some of the dirt off Dino's face. "I never," He began as he kindly slapped dirt from the Cavallone boss's visage. "I never gave you the daifuku Yamamoto Takeshi and I had gotten."

In between hits, Dino would reply. "Oh—How— Considerate —Of—You."

The raven-haired boy clapped his palms together to wipe left over dirt from his hands. "Maybe I'll bring them to you tomorrow or maybe I'll punish you a bit more and throw them away."

"I think I've been punished enough." Dino said. "I deserve some sweets."

"I'm throwing them away."

"What made you decide that?!"

"You remind me non-stop of how much of an idiot you are."

Persistently, Dino wrapped his arms around Kyoya. "Hey, hey, Kyoya! I wanted to remind you that I love you."

Hibari pounded his fist onto the Italian's head. "You have a bad habit of repeating dumb things."

"You have tons of bad habits. Can't I have this one?"

"I never said that you didn't have any others."

Dino smiled. "Others? Like what?"

Hibari clamped a few fingers onto Dino's lips. "That. You smile too much."

Dino puffed up his injured cheeks until Hibari couldn't keep a lock on his lips. The boy let go and watched as Dino fell back into laughter once more.

"Kyoya," Dino called out.

"You say my name too much too. It's embarrassing."

"Does that mean that you _don't_ like my company?"

Hibari laid down in the grass and refrained from answering the question.

"Do you like it or not?"

Nothing.

"Hey, Kyoya!"

Hibari rolled over on his side and put his hands underneath his head as a pillow.

"Kyoya."

The clouds gently passed on by, envying the easy-going lives of the humans below them.

* * *

A/N: The end. =D


End file.
